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The seal of the U.S. National Security Agency.(Wikipedia)

The Americans who want Snowden back home -- and Snowden himself -- should be careful what they wish for. American intel types, once Snowden is back in the U.S., might have reason to regret having made him a hero while giving him a platform, as a defendant testifying in court, for emitting still more great quotes -- and secrets.

While Snowden casts about for shelter in countries ranging from India and China to Russia to Ecuador and Venezuela, he seems to forget what could be the best option of all -- taking up the American offer of a one-time travel document enabling him to return to the U.S. as a repentant felon.

Except that Snowden would not have to repent. Think of all he could be saying before, during and after his trial. He could make his accusers look like still greater fools than they have already appeared for having given a 29-year-0ld kid such access.

Would the NSA, already caterwauling about exposure of some of its deepest secrets, really want to be providing him with a forum for spilling still more secrets? Snowden's testimony on the stand could be far more damaging than all the reports we've been seeing in publications ranging from the German magazine Der Spiegel to the British paper The Guardian about the NSA spying on both friends and enemies in equal proportions.

The problem with those reports is not only that they're fragmentary but also that they lack real credibility. What's really wrong, Americans might ask, about trying to figure out what all those foreigners are doing and saying? The response in middle America is we can't trust those people anyway, and it's a good thing the NSA is keeping track of them.

Put Snowden on the stand in a public courtroom in the U.S., though, and he might seem much more convincing as a critic of U.S.

surveillance that also extends and possibly endangers all Americans. He can carry on all he likes about how awful President Obama and Vice President Biden have been in persuading foreign government to balk at giving him safe haven, but he could call their bluffs totally if he were to say, Ok, now I want to go home and say still more that will really fix you guys.

Would the NSA, given that risk, really want to put Snowden through a prolonged trial that could be a real embarrassment to the dopes who gave him such an opening for access to all their dark and dirty secrets? At some point in this whole charade NSA and CIA heads should be rolling -- not for betraying the U.S. Constitution and all that but for being so stupid. And they should also be held accountable for how many others have had similar access -- and the chance to run off with secrets for sale to anyone with the money to buy them.

The best reason for Snowden to come home, though, is that he would get such a hero's welcome. Just think of all the academics from Cambridge MA to Berkeley CA who would be lionizing him, making him a hero and a martyr, portraying him as the victim of an imperial America that had lost its way.

Conservatives might want to jail him forever, but how could they overcome the portrayal of Snowden as one who simply wanted to battle for a return to the principles set forth by the founding fathers in the constitution? As a matter of fact, if the views of Ron Paul are indicative, Snowden is guaranteed a strong conservative following -- a fusion of rightists and leftists with a shared vision of old-time values.

The problem with Snowden's remarks while overseas is the suspicion lurks that he's a man on the lam who's fast losing credibility. Even if he gets asylum somewhere, he's going to run out of things to say and then fade into the miasma of trouble-makers whom a lot of people don't quite believe, much less admire.

His credibility, among Americans, will vastly increase once he's back in the U.S. and yakking away on the stand, in the media, even from prison. If he's finally sentenced, he can be sure that he'll have plenty of people fighting to get him out while holding him up as a hero for the ages rather than an oddball who ran off with the company's secrets.